Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 65

6.—A Member of his Congregation

6.—A Member of his Congregation.

"About seven years ago I became a member of his page 8 congregation in Paisley, not without strong prejudices against himself (foolishly received from hearsay), and with feelings indifferent when not hostile to his most characteristic opinions in theology and ecclesiasticism. The prejudices very soon vanished, and have been sup. planted by a knowledge which is another name for love. Most men who know him at all, know that he is truthful, pure, and brave, and these are great qualities when real in the sense and degree in which they are real in him. Those who know him well, know also that he is charitable, generous, and courteous, if not always in the most approved conventional form, yet always so that no one with any true perception can mistake the reality. Differing so widely from him on matters that he regards of vital importance, and taking no pains to mitigate the expression of these differences, I can truly say that Mr. MacGregor has never, by word or manner, made me feel a moment's consciousness of alienation. I cannot say so much either for myself or for many others, who profess what are called (not always very discriminatingly) liberal opinions, which make the duty of toleration at once easier and more imperative. His books speak for themselves; they do not always speak truly for him. His weekly sermons, on the other hand, the utterance of his life under all the influences surrounding it, have been of a very high average, both intellectual and moral; an average that has grown steadily higher year by year. Always acute and vigorous, the thought with which they have been charged has increased greatly in massiveness and depth, and has become pervaded by a tenderness of feeling reserved in its expression, as the feeling of men of the heroic type always is, but the more impressive on that account to those whom it touches. Mr. MacGregor's personal influence on the young men whom he would have to teach were he called to the Chair, would, I believe, be singularly good, alike in relation to those (no doubt a large majority) who accepted his conclusions, and to those who did not."